FAQ

This page provides answers to some frequently asked questions.

Many of the pedagogical choices we made when creating CLIP materials was informed by the research on multimedia learning by Richard E. Mayer,
Professor of Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, and others. Our primary
goal was to design learning objects that cause students to engage with
information.

Have more questions? Contact CLIP (info@clipinfolit.org)

Who can use these tutorials? Can I pass them on to others?Anyone
is free to use CLIP materials. CLIP materials are all free and open-source. The materials are
hosted and ready to be used. Simply direct people to the URLs provided
for each tutorial. See the Use Suggestions page for more info.Can I edit and republish these tutorials?Yes.
You may download the sources files for any CLIP material, edit, remix,
reformat, republish, etc. All CLIP materials are under the Creative Commons: Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike. Edit
away -- just be sure to provide attribution, don't sell your remixes and
share your versions as well. To provide attribution, you may choose to
link to the "more info" page that we've created for each CLIP material,
or identify that your version has been adapted from CLIP materials and
provide a link back to our site.Why do the tutorials have audio?Studies
have shown that people learn from multimedia learning objects better
when words are spoken rather than printed as text (Mayer, 2006; Moreno
& Mayer, 1999). Mayer (2006) describes this effect from a cognitive
perspective: "Printed words can overload the visual channel because the
animation and the printed words must compete for attentional resources
during learning. When words are presented as spoken text, this offloads
some of the cognitive demand from the visual channel to the auditory
channel" (p. 380). All tutorials with audio have closed captioning
that can be turned on or off. Audio can be muted. We also offer a text
script (.doc) for all tutorials with audio. We encourage you to make the
text version available alongside the flash version to facilitate
different learning styles and abilities.

Why do you use a conversational style?Many
studies have shown that people learn from multimedia learning objects
better when the material is presented in a casual and conversational
style rather than a formal or academic style (Mayer, 2006; Mayer,
Fennell, Farmer, & Campbell, 2004; Moreno & Mayer, 2000).
Richard Mayer, Professor of Psychology at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, is responsible for much of this research and has
replicated the positive effect of an informal tone on learning in
several studies. He sums the effect up nicely: “When learners view the
computer as a social partner, they are more likely to try to understand
what the computer is saying to them, thereby engaging in the deeper
cognitive processes of organizing and integrating” (Mayer, 2006, pp.
382-383). This description of the social relationship between computers
and learners and its connection to learning is also supported by Reeves
and Nass (1998).